The Fictional Woman

Tara Moss

In 2002 successfully published author of crime novels, Tara Moss, undertook a lie detector test in front of the media to see whether she actually writes her books. Why? Because she had previously been a catwalk and photographic model and people said she couldn’t write her own books; it must have been a boyfriend or a ghost-writer.

Eight bestselling novels later, she is now a journalist, blogger, TV presenter, and Doctor of Arts candidate at the University of Sydney as well. Join Tara Moss as she discusses her first non-fiction book The Fictional Woman in which she combines personal reflections with a critical look at the multiple roles of women in our relentlessly image-obsessed society.

Tara will be in discussion with Paul Priday, a fellow PhD candidate in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at The University of Sydney. His doctoral research is in masculine creativity in multinational advertising agencies and he is conducting ethnographic research on gendered workplace behaviour in Sydney, Delhi and Shanghai agencies.

Chaired by Elspeth Probyn, Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, and author of several groundbreaking monographs as well as over a hundred articles and chapters within the fields of feminist cultural studies. She is the supervisor of both Paul and Tara’s PhDs.